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In my second job out of college I was tasked with, in some instances, creating a luggage collection and working all the way through from concept to design to sourcing to pricing. When it came to the latter, I have to admit that I was pretty green in understanding retail vs. wholesale vs. MSRP vs. etc. etc. pricing and how it works.

I can by no means say that I am any more well versed in it but it does make more sense now. But, it never hurts to look back and learn more about that thing you used to do and see how you could have understood it better. So to google I went.

1. “The price resellers pay is determined mostly by your MSRP (Manufacturer Suggest Retail Price). But once they’ve paid, they can then sell at whatever price they deem profitable to them. So if your MSRP is $50.00 and you sell to a retailer at 50% discount, they have the potential to make $25.00 profit. But if they’re willing to make less they can undercut the competition.

When this happens, and the price war kicks in, your MSRP goes out the window and your phone starts to ring off the hook with complaints from resellers.”

2. “A minimum advertised price is just that – it’s the agreed price a reseller agrees to advertise a brand or product at. There may be some wiggle room, but generally, when a reseller accepts the agreement, they’re stuck. They can’t advertise a product for sale any less than the agreed price. This means in print, online, or any where.”

3. “While collusion to maintain a fixed price or profit margin is illegal in most circumstances MAP policies are legitimate and valid – if done correctly…here’s the big differentiator – MAP pricing does not limit the actual selling price. It simply sets the minimum price a product can be advertised at – whether that’s in print or online.”

4. “Resellers are adverse to risk. They certainly don’t want to take on new brands and products that they’ll be undercut on by other resellers. They want to have some cost control and profit assurances. MAP affords them some protection. They know that if they buy your product to sell, they won’t necessarily see it online tomorrow advertised for way less.”

5. “MSRP is what you’d like everyone to sell your product at – and you’re discounting levels are based on it. While MAP is the price resellers agree to advertise your product at – provided you’ve had them sign reseller agreements. So, make sure you have reseller agreements in place.”

As we all know, content is king. So if content is king then we need to know how to provide good/relevant/interesting/captivating/etc content to our audience. How do we do that? Think of your favorite book, or children’s story and perhaps learn from that. Clearly, the writer did something right to keep you interested and reading.

A business related story or case study should do the same thing for its audience. It should grab, and hold, their attention until they read through to the end. That’s exactly what the article titled, How to Tell a Great Brand Story, talks about. I think one of they key take away’s for me is “Provide what matters.” Too often people get way too far in the grains of some process, or technology, or solution. Stay high level. If the reader wants to know more, hopefully you’ve enticed them enough to reach out to you. But overwhelm them, and they might feel like they’re not smart enough for the product, or simply feel like this is way more than they might need, which may not be reality but rather their perception.

Upon looking into the best method to send out press releases I stumbled upon an article that confirmed some of my thoughts on press releases. The article titled, Looking for the Best PR Wire Service? Consider This… talks about the fact that wire press releases are, in my opinion, comparable to print ads back in the day. It’s not to say they should go away for ever, or there is no place for them, but they are becoming antiquated. Contrary to popular belief, they serve no SEO purpose, based on new Google algorithms.

The one good thing about press releases is, “Wire services do perform one exclusive function. They syndicate our news across thousands of sites on the web. The question we have to ask as marketers–is that of value to us? If it is–how much?”

I would have to agree that I am a much bigger fan of short blurb write ups, or placements than I am of press releases. I am an even bigger fan of full fledged, well written and compelling, articles or case studies.

It’s that time of year, strategy time. I was lucky enough in my last position to be asked to begin thinking about proper marketing roadmaps and creating, and tracking, a strategy for the next year. I touched on this briefly in the past but I’m even happier to start it all again from complete scratch and in an entirely different place. Yes, I’ve moved on from my last company to a new adventure, so please pardon the sporadic postings for the next month or so until I get in to a rhythm. But don’t worry, I’ll always be coming back here to share my thoughts and ideas. But…I digress.

I wanted to start from scratch this time. I had the bones of my old roadmap which hinged on focusing on the different markets we used to sell in to and their buying times. Based on that I would mark off what kind of marketing activities had to be done when – trade shows, advertising, PR, social media, etc. However, it is difficult to measure something when you don’t have the bandwidth to do it. So this time around, I’m going to take the bones and expand by layering in the ultimate business goals as well as a more laid out plan so that the questions of “what” has to be done and “how” to do it are answered in a much easier way.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not an expert in all things marketing hence why I like to write this blog – it allows me to think about and explore various topics and aspects of marketing and business in general. I’d like to think that I’ve been around various blocks a number of times and know what works, what doesn’t, the way to and not to do things but it’s important to realize that you should always be striving to learn and do more.

So, below you will see some places where you too can learn more about setting your own strategic roadmap. Happy planning!

I’m continuing to broaden my marketing horizons and trying to learn more about different industries and ways of marketing to them. Today, we’ll take a look at IT services. Unless it’s an app, you’re more than likely marketing to a business, which makes it a B2B landscape. But, as I’ve said before, although the buying time frame might be longer than in a B2C scenario you’re still marketing to people and need to think about what makes them tick and what will make your service stand out from the crowd.

So with that, here is some interesting information I found that I thought would be interesting to you, my dear readers.

A blog about how to sell IT services in 6 steps. Value prop must be identified, followed by uniqueness of your service and how that fits in to your target market’s needs.

Lastly, although this article, Tips for Marketing Your Service Business, doesn’t exactly talk about IT, it does talk about how to market in the service industry. “Compete based on value. What will make customers or clients select your company vs. your competitor’s?”

As always, don’t forget to check out my twitter hashtag #careeradvice101 or just follow me, Linder83.

For those that watch the “Million Dollar Listing” shows on Bravo know that the people on there make a lot of dough. Yes, they are successful at what they do. And yes, some of them have been brought up in fortunate homes but they have succeeded at what they do by being creative. A $15 million dollar home won’t sell itself. How do you get in front of people, make them realize that the investment is worth it, not only for the sake of location?

Things have changed, but not as much as you might think. Flyers and brochures are still very valuable, as shown in the image above…which is already a bit out of date. Although aerial videos, via drones, are showing up more and more, and most people won’t even go see a home if there are no photos, that listing sheet is still very important.

But, how do you bring in the masses, and other agents who might have a buyer for your home?

Here is a great article for the 25 Real Estate Marketing Ideas the Pro’s Use. I’ll highlight my favorites, which I base on the fact that these can be applied to any kind of marketing. Because at the end of the day…marketing is marketing. It’s just a matter of how you word & present things.

1. Write Listings that Sell –> content is king in all industries!
2. Drip Campaigns via email –> this allows you to weed through your prospects and potentially identify those that are ready to take the next step in the buying cycle.
3. Blog blog blog
4. Social Media –> use the platforms that make sense for your industry.
5. SEO

So with all of that, how do you market to all these different people/consumers? Think more about who your target customer is and what their needs are as well as HOW they consume your product. Is it on the go? Is it only on weekends? Is it at the gym or movie theater? All of these need to fall into a separate category that requires a different kind of message. I’ve always found it all pretty fascinating and have said that no matter what kind of “bucket” your business/service/product falls in to, you are selling to people. So, what void are you trying to fill?

Take a look at some more resources I dug up for you that speak to consumer product good marketing:

Just as marketing is unique to the previous markets/industries we talked about, it is also unique when it comes to the life sciences or scientific arena. I would bet you, that more companies than not don’t hit that home run when it comes to telling their overall story in this market. There are those few that do, but for the most part, if you are not intimately involved in the market, you’re likely to get very overwhelmed by the jargon and the wealth of information. So I decided to search and learn about the best marketing methods, and mistakes, when it comes to marketing to the life sciences market.

What I quickly learned, and agree with, is that often times, a company gets pigeon holed into only being known for its product(s) and not its overall solutions. That’s all I’ll say about that but I do want to point you in the direction of a fascinating article that has me jotting down notes and wondering if I should rethink the way I’ve been thinking.

1. “Truth is, the majority of the marketing resources that scientific companies expend are for product promotions. Very little attention is paid to brand building.

2. Product-marketing leads to company becoming synonymous with a technology, limiting its actual potential.

3. Product-based messages raise the baseline noise.

4. Market forces define the company’s brand.

5. A study published in Harvard Business Review[2] has profound implications about the power of brands to motivate people towards action, and the adverse effects that promotional headlines have on customer behavior. In short, it is actually possible that brands can generate demand with far more efficiency than product marketing activities.

6. Companies don’t actually have to choose between brand-vs-product marketing. They can do both. But it takes more than marcom-level template-enforcing. It takes action.

Companies can build their brands through product marketing, by focusing on the content of their programs and encouraging an experience for their customers, instead of just saying their value proposition.

The first step is to develop a content model and a campaign architecture that engages with scientists and encourages them to experience the value proposition. The Content-Centric Marketing for Science is one such framework.”

Is your mind blown a bit? Will you rethink your marketing strategy even if you’re not in the life sciences field?

Here is one more nugget from the Content Centric Marketing article:

“Most marketing messages for scientific products and services provide only logical feature/benefit statements, failing to engage the scientist’s emotion or ego. The key is to know when and how to engage either a scientist’s emotion, or his/her logic or ego during the buying journey. This can be approached by mapping how the archetypal scientist consumes information.”“The goal of marketers should be to develop information that removes any impediments for scientists to move swiftly from stage to stage in their own buying journeys, all the while becoming predisposed to the company’s way of thinking. It is important to remember that scientists need to make their own conclusions at each stage, rather than being told what to think and how to act.”